What bottles do most hospitals use?

MelleTX

My plan when the twins arrive is to pump and bottle-feed. I hope to pump enough, but will supplement with formula if needed.

Do you bring your own bottles to the hospital or do they give you bottles to feed with? What kind do they use? When you got home, did you keep using the same kind, switch to the brand you wanted or try them all to see what the babies preferred?  

I am working on my registry right now and the whole feeding section is really overwhelming.

Thank you! 

Rynleigh

We always brought our own. The only time the hospital brought bottles into our room, they were the tiny little 2oz glass Enfamil bottles. That was a whole decade ago, tho, and every hospital is different. 

I used Playtex disposable nursers with both of my girls, and will do so with the twins, also. Had adapter kits for the pump, let me pump strait into a lined bottle - pump, cap, and go. With both girls I started leaking at 4mo pregnant, so I started pumping and freezing at 8mo (to my Midwife's horror, lmfao - but I never had any signs of preterm labor, so I kept doing it. Both kids born right on time) - so I went into the hospital with bags full of frozen milk for both deliveries.

I've used the standard cheapo Gerber bottles, in a pinch, but otherwise it's been Playtex all the way because I'm a germ freak and I feel better throwing away liners than trying to bleach and steam all the bottles between uses. My kids would take just about any kind of bottle - I don't think they ever cared a whole lot because I started them so early and only breastfed with a shield. The bottle choice was all about keeping me sane more than what they wanted lol

Mrs. Alice

Most hospitals have premixed 2 oz bottles of formula with disposible nipples or if you are there long enough and have pumped milk, they use the Medela 2.5 oz bottles with the same nipples.  The NICU OT recommended Dr. Brown's because my babies were BF so we got some and brought them in the last couple weeks.  My boys were never picky though.

BritterBee05

  When I had the twins the hospital just used the small bottles of Similac that just had a generic nipple. I do know that they offered different flow nipples depending on the baby because one of mine needed a slower flow nipple. As far as bottles go I have always stuck with the Dr. Browns the only drawback is that there are 5 pieces for 1 bottle multiple that by 2 babies and you are doing an awful lot of bottle washing.

ougrad1

Ditto the previous posts.  We used Dr Browns bottles with all three kiddos.

Rynleigh

My sister offered to send me a full set of Dr. Browns for the twins (someone got them for her last shower and she's a Nuk-only gal)... she was all "Now, don't have a panic attack, I won't feel bad if you say no and I expect that you will.... but do you want..." I msg'd her back and asked her if she was insane lol I would be waking up in the middle of the night just to clean bottles over and over with all of those parts. I don't know how you people do it. I would be stressed to the brim if I had so many small parts for bacteria to hide in. 

MelleTX

Rynleigh:

With both girls I started leaking at 4mo pregnant, so I started pumping and freezing at 8mo (to my Midwife's horror, lmfao - but I never had any signs of preterm labor, so I kept doing it. Both kids born right on time) - so I went into the hospital with bags full of frozen milk for both deliveries.

Oh My! I never even thought something like this could happen. I guess I need to go read more about milk production. That's insane!

All this time, I have thought I would use the Playtex nursers with the drop in liners, but have you looked at Target or any of the big baby stores lately? They aren't really carrying them. When I went to Target, they had 1 package of liners (the small size only) and two packages of the white 8 oz bottles. I even checked online and none of the popular stores seem to have much of a selection.

Dr. Browns' scares the heck out of me. Too many parts. I have been looking at the Born Free bottles lately. 

Rynleigh

MelleTX:

Oh My! I never even thought something like this could happen. I guess I need to go read more about milk production. That's insane!

All this time, I have thought I would use the Playtex nursers with the drop in liners, but have you looked at Target or any of the big baby stores lately? They aren't really carrying them. When I went to Target, they had 1 package of liners (the small size only) and two packages of the white 8 oz bottles. I even checked online and none of the popular stores seem to have much of a selection.

Dr. Browns' scares the heck out of me. Too many parts. I have been looking at the Born Free bottles lately. 

My family jokes that I was "Born to make babies" - I always have relatively painless labor that lasts less than a day, pushed 10min with my first and 15min with my second, leak milk heavy enough to need pads before I'm even into month 5, regularly survive on less than 5hrs of sleep while still getting my kids to sleep 7hrs straight by a month old, etc etc. My pre-birth supply wasn't massive, I typically got about 1oz per session pumping before they were born - but that's really a substantial amount over time, since I did it every time I started to leak after month 8. My supply established so fast after their births that I could pump out 3oz per session on one side while feeding on the other side. 

With Alyce, I ordered all of our nursers off of e-bay and purchased store-brand liners at Walmart. With these guys, we're relying on Amazon. They've got all kinds of sellers with brand new nursers - premium and old style - and plenty of drop-in suppliers with varying prices. I plan to do one big bulk buy on bottles & liners in a couple of months, so that I can hit that $50 free shipping spot and have liners out the wazoo. lol  

ougrad1

Rynleigh:

My sister offered to send me a full set of Dr. Browns for the twins (someone got them for her last shower and she's a Nuk-only gal)... she was all "Now, don't have a panic attack, I won't feel bad if you say no and I expect that you will.... but do you want..." I msg'd her back and asked her if she was insane lol I would be waking up in the middle of the night just to clean bottles over and over with all of those parts. I don't know how you people do it. I would be stressed to the brim if I had so many small parts for bacteria to hide in. 

My kids are okay.  ::::shrugs::::   I like to think of myself and my home pretty darn spotless as far as cleanliness goes.  I loved the Dr Brown bottles. 

Rynleigh

ougrad1:

My kids are okay.  ::::shrugs::::   I like to think of myself and my home pretty darn spotless as far as cleanliness goes.  I loved the Dr Brown bottles. 

Oh, no no. I'm not totally illogical or anything - I'm aware that they're not baby death doomers lol I don't think they're actually dangerous or anything. I just have severe anxiety and wouldn't be able to handle it, myself. I would be overwhelmed with intrusive thoughts and compulsive cleaning/checking responses o.O

E&RMommy

MelleTX:

Rynleigh:

With both girls I started leaking at 4mo pregnant, so I started pumping and freezing at 8mo (to my Midwife's horror, lmfao - but I never had any signs of preterm labor, so I kept doing it. Both kids born right on time) - so I went into the hospital with bags full of frozen milk for both deliveries.

Oh My! I never even thought something like this could happen. I guess I need to go read more about milk production. That's insane!

All this time, I have thought I would use the Playtex nursers with the drop in liners, but have you looked at Target or any of the big baby stores lately? They aren't really carrying them. When I went to Target, they had 1 package of liners (the small size only) and two packages of the white 8 oz bottles. I even checked online and none of the popular stores seem to have much of a selection.

Dr. Browns' scares the heck out of me. Too many parts. I have been looking at the Born Free bottles lately. 

This is 100% NOT recommended.  Not one bit.  Regular nipple stimulation can cause preterm labor and in fact tachysystole (more than 5 contractions in ten minutes), placental abruption and uterine rupture.

This is not the norm and no physican/care provider would support pumping prior to delivery.  For the same reasoning, nipple stimulation is no longer supported by ACOG for induction of labor due to poor outcomes. 

Rynleigh

E&RMommy:

This is 100% NOT recommended.  Not one bit.  Regular nipple stimulation can cause preterm labor and in fact tachysystole (more than 5 contractions in ten minutes), placental abruption and uterine rupture.

This is not the norm and no physican/care provider would support pumping prior to delivery.  For the same reasoning, nipple stimulation is no longer supported by ACOG for induction of labor due to poor outcomes. 

^^^^ This. As I said, my first midwife was not happy about it one bit (I never told my second midwife). I had completely uncomplicated pregnancies, I don't intend to do it with the twins since we're already going to be looking at early delivery and such. I don't have sexual responses to nipple stimulation and never experienced contractions from pumping - but pre-birth pumping is strongly discouraged.  

I still did it.  

***Edit:

I also had very few qualms about attempting it specifically because I watched my mother breastfeed all of my siblings back to back during every one of her third trimesters with three different children. My mother isn't an example of good parenting, but she also never had any preterm labor, at all, while breastfeeding during pregnancy. So I had a direct family example of it not being dangerous, and started doing it before I ever told my midwife about it. Didn't listen to my midwife after she freaked out about it because I'd already been doing it for a week without problems.

 

Again, not going to do it during a higher risk pregnancy like this  

KarlsSweetie05

My twins were preterm 33w4d.  Lots of complications at birth.  One in NICU for month, other 2 weeks.  When they finally were able to eat from bottle, hospital used the premixed 2oz bottles of Enfamil or Similac formula with slow flow nipples.

At discharge, for my babies', the recommended not using Dr. Brown and just using plain old Evenflo bottles. Simple, uncomplicated, old fashioned bottle.  Oh, and dirt cheap.. like $1 a bottle.  No kidding. 

Evenflo comes in plastic or glass.  I chose plastic.  The plastic ones come in different color combos and since I have B/G twins, I liked knowing whose bottle was whose just by color. 

 https://www.toysrus.com/search/index.jsp?categoryId=11291471&searchURL=false&f=PRTagBestUses%2FTRUS%2FFeeding&fbc=1&fbn=PRTagBestUses%7CFeeding

Evenflo offers 3 levels of nipples - slow, medium, and fast.  As the babies grew, we changed out nipples to faster flows over time.

Evenflo bottles and nipples are dirt cheap and easy to clean.

I think every baby is different and every situation is different.  Personally, I would not stock up on any one type of bottles and wait and see what happens and what you will need and what the babies want. 

KarlsSweetie05

Wanted to mention that I thought I was going to want to use the Playtex bottles with liners.  I had bought a few bottles and a box of liners before the babies were born. 

Around 3-4 months old, I tried switching from the Evenflo bottles to playtex with the drop in liners. Thought it would reduce my workload, less things to wash.  The babies were doing just fine on the Evenflo.  It was me who wanted to switch.

 However,my babies hated the Playtex bottle or the nipple, not sure which.

So you just never know what will work for each baby ... and each baby may prefer something different...

lmydogally

ougrad1:

Rynleigh:

My sister offered to send me a full set of Dr. Browns for the twins (someone got them for her last shower and she's a Nuk-only gal)... she was all "Now, don't have a panic attack, I won't feel bad if you say no and I expect that you will.... but do you want..." I msg'd her back and asked her if she was insane lol I would be waking up in the middle of the night just to clean bottles over and over with all of those parts. I don't know how you people do it. I would be stressed to the brim if I had so many small parts for bacteria to hide in. 

My kids are okay.  ::::shrugs::::   I like to think of myself and my home pretty darn spotless as far as cleanliness goes.  I loved the Dr Brown bottles. 

This I just put all the parts in the dish washer baskets made for bottle parts and hit the sanitize button on the dishwasher.  Dr. Brown bottle are awesome. 

JustcallmeGG2

they gave us a million tiny 2 oz disposable bottles to pump into and they have a variety of disposable nipples.

at home, i like the Dr. Brown's bottles. 

mirnb

I think most hospitals just have the ready to feed little bottles and generic nipples....we use playtex ventaire....I really liked these bottles as they had wide nipples similar to breast ( we did bottle and breast for 1st three months) and they are also good for reducing air bubbles so less gas! But everyone has different opinions...I think most babies will just take to whatever you give them as long as you start young....oh and I found these bottles easy to wash!

MrsLnt

We were formula pretty much from the getgo, but they had the 2oz formula nursettes for us in the hospital. We had Evenflo bottles at home and I hated those muthas. Leaky, the nipples collapsed, all around awful. I got what I paid for. 

Switched to Dr. Brown's and couldn't have been happier. Yes, all the parts were a pain, but I just gave everything a rinse in hot water after each feeding, put them in the dishwasher, and that was that. I do think they helped with our reflux issues. If nothing else, they didn't hurt.  

ddub09

MelleTX:

Rynleigh:

With both girls I started leaking at 4mo pregnant, so I started pumping and freezing at 8mo (to my Midwife's horror, lmfao - but I never had any signs of preterm labor, so I kept doing it. Both kids born right on time) - so I went into the hospital with bags full of frozen milk for both deliveries.

Oh My! I never even thought something like this could happen. I guess I need to go read more about milk production. That's insane!

All this time, I have thought I would use the Playtex nursers with the drop in liners, but have you looked at Target or any of the big baby stores lately? They aren't really carrying them. When I went to Target, they had 1 package of liners (the small size only) and two packages of the white 8 oz bottles. I even checked online and none of the popular stores seem to have much of a selection.

Dr. Browns' scares the heck out of me. Too many parts. I have been looking at the Born Free bottles lately. 

Honestly, I had both the Born Free and Dr. Brown's bottles and they both have the same amount of parts. My advice is to get a basket and run them through the dishwasher. I thought the Dr. Brown's caused less gas than the Born Free in the beginning. Our hospital had formula in the two ounce bottles while we were there and they gave us a ton when we left. They also supplied three ounce bottles for pumping.

crystaleyes39

They just used the premixed enfamil little 2 oz bottles with the screw on lid and nipple. Our girls stayed in the NICU for awhile and were having feeding issues so we brought in our Dr. Browns Bottles and it seemed to really help. We've been using those ever since.